Viva Palestina’s Convoy Reaches Gaza

Lifeline 5, the fifth aid convoy organized by the UK-based charity Viva Palestina, has crossed Rafah, the border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, the aid mission of 150 vehicles entered the coastal sliver, carrying around $5 million in food, medicine and basic supplies.

The move signified disruption of Tel Aviv’s siege of Gaza, which has been depriving its 1.5-million population of food, fuel and other necessities for more than three years.

Headed by former British lawmaker George Galloway, the convoy departed from London on September 18. It crossed France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria and Egypt on its way to the enclave.

The trip was made despite the likelihood that the activists come under the attack of the Israeli military, which had killed nine activists in May during an assault on Freedom Flotilla, a convoy of the same mission.

Israeli paper The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday that the Israeli forces were awaiting the arrival of the activists.

Citing a source with Israel’s military, the paper wrote, "The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is prepared" for the convoy.

There, however, has been no news yet of Tel Aviv-ordered aggression on the activists.

The convoy was also fearful of confrontation by the Egyptian authorities. In January 2010, the Egyptian riot police injured 55 people in the port of El Arish during clashes with the Viva Palestina’s previous aid convoy.

Speaking to a Press TV correspondent, however, Lifeline 5’s spokesman, Zaher Birawi, said that the Egyptians had refrained from imposing any conditions on the mission’s entry into the sliver.

"The Egyptians are facilitating and making easy and smooth the entrance to Gaza," Birawi said.

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